Every beautiful thing leaves a trace. A melody. A memory. A spark. A way of seeing that did not exist before we encountered it.
At some point in our lives, we will be changed by beauty. The strength of our character will show in what happens next.
Do we carry it with reverence? Or do we quietly long to possess it?
There is a line so subtle it’s almost invisible – the place where one person’s influence ends, and another person’s integrity begins.
It is a line we all encounter, whenever we are moved by something beautiful.
What do we do when we find ourselves standing there?
It is an old lesson. Old enough that it has been told a thousand different ways. But sometimes the decisions we make, and the lessons we learn, are best understood from the eyes of a child.
This is simply the way it came to me – through a Magpie and a Mirror.
The Magpie Who Collected Other People’s Songs
Once upon a time, there was a magpie who lived in a beautiful garden.
The garden welcomed many visitors.
Each morning, a robin arrived carrying songs of sunrise. A sparrow brought melodies of joy and quiet courage. An owl visited beneath the evening sky with songs woven from silence and wisdom.
The magpie loved all of the songs that sang of tales unknown. She listened carefully. She remembered every melody, and even every breath between the notes.
At first, she simply loved the songs. She never noticed the moment admiration turned into possession. It wasn’t long before the magpie thought,
“I must keep this.”
So she did.
She gathered each song as though it were a treasure. She tucked them safely away until they began to feel like her own.
When the birds flew on to distant places, the magpie remained behind, singing their songs back to the garden.
The rabbits would pause to listen. The squirrels would gather in the branches. Even the deer lifted their heads.
“What a beautiful voice,” they all agreed.
The magpie would smile proudly, and sing another borrowed song.
But there was something the magpie did not understand. A song is more than a melody. The robin’s song carried mornings the magpie had never witnessed. The sparrow’s song carried journeys the magpie had never taken. The owl’s song carried nights the magpie had never known. She could remember every note. But she had never lived the life that gave those songs their meaning.
And so, one autumn evening, a fox slipped quietly into the garden. The rabbits were busy nibbling clover. The squirrels chased one another through the branches. The deer grazed peacefully beneath the trees.
No one looked up.
No one ran.
The magpie opened her beak. She searched through every song she had collected. The robin’s sunrise. The sparrow’s joy. The owl’s wisdom. But none of them belonged to this moment. Nowhere among the borrowed songs could she find the one voice the garden needed most to hear.
She had spent so many seasons collecting the songs of others, that she had forgotten the one song only she – was born to sing. In trying to possess what was special about another – she had betrayed her own voice.
The one gift the garden most needed.
The magpie’s mistake was not that she found beauty in the songs of others. They were gifts. Her mistake was believing that because she could carry the songs, they belonged to her.
But there is another way we can lose sight of the distinction between reverence and possession.
Sometimes we do not just take the gift itself. Sometimes we begin to believe we are the source of it.
Which brings us to the story of the mirror…
The Mirror Who Wanted to Be the Sun
Once upon a time, there was a small mirror that belonged to a very vain man. He carried it everywhere in his pocket, pulling it out whenever he wanted to admire his own reflection. The mirror knew only one purpose: to show him what he wanted to see.
But one day, while walking through a great forest, the man stumbled. The mirror slipped from his pocket and fell to the ground. A crack ran across its surface, and the vain man left it behind among the trees.
The next morning, sunlight poured through the branches and touched the broken mirror. It reflected the light across the forest beautifully! One beam danced across the rabbit’s home. Another warmed the flowers beneath the trees. One even shimmered across the moss and streams.
The creatures of the forest gathered in wonder.
“How beautiful the light is,” they agreed. “How much warmth the mirror brings!”
The mirror loved this new life. It had never imagined it could bring such beauty into the world.
At first, the mirror remembered the truth. That the light was not its own. The source was the sun, and the mirror was simply a vessel through which the light could be seen.
But over time, the mirror began to believe the praise belonged to itself. And little by little, the mirror began telling itself a different story. It was no longer merely reflecting the light.
It convinced itself that it had created it.
When the rabbits spoke of the sunbeams warming their homes, the mirror thought:
“Look at the warmth I have created.”
When the flowers bloomed beneath its glow, the mirror thought:
“Look at the beauty I create.”
The mirror began to move farther into the sunlight, trying to capture more and more of its brilliance. It strived to outshine the sun.
But a reflection is never the same as the original flame.
In trying to claim to be the source of the light, the mirror forgot the responsibility of holding it.
The light grew stronger.
The forest floor dried. The leaves curled. The rabbits found new homes.
Then one day, the forest caught fire.
The mirror watched in horror as the light it had claimed, became the very instrument of chaos.
The mirror learned too late, that the greatest honor of a being a light-barer is not in possessing it, but to carry it with humility.
And that is the lesson of the magpie and the mirror.
We will all be influenced. We will all learn from others. We will all stand in the light of those who came before us. But will we have the integrity to honor what has shown us the way? Do we understand the difference between receiving and taking? Between inspiration and imitation? Between carrying a gift, and claiming ownership of what was never ours.
The world does not need more echoes pretending to be voices. It does not need more reflections pretending to be the sun.
It needs each of us to discover what only we can offer.
It is just so heartbreaking to watch someone spend their energy trying to reflect another person’s light – that they deny the world the gift only they can give.
The world does not need another version of someone else.
It needs the song that only you can sing.
The light that only you can carry.
The gift that can only come through your own authentic expression.
Authenticity is not just what makes us different. It’s truly our very own gift to give to the world.
Every one of us has a special something that cannot be borrowed, copied, or possessed. And perhaps our greatest responsibility – is to become faithful to the beauty that has been entrusted to only us.
So shine bright baby!!☀️Like only YOU can!!
💗Big Love & Many Blessings🌸